Antonio Banderas has opened up about the responsibility he felt in taking on the role of one of his heroes, Pablo Picasso, in the second season of National Geographic Channel’s ‘Genius’ anthology series.

He told E! he went into the project trying not to fail. “To not fail just the character, but the truth.”

“Nothing is going to take me away from being a Picasso lover of his art and everything he has done as an artist, but there are certain sides of the human being that are darker, so we have to tell the truth.”

Banderas also pointed to his confidence in executive producer Ron Howard as a reason he was willing to take on the role.

“It’s important when you do a biopic to have that security that what you’re doing is actually based on facts because you’re talking about a human life that affected millions of people.”

“The sense of responsibility represents a kind of burden on my shoulders,” Banderas said.

The 10-part series exploring the life of the Spanish-born artist also stars Alex Rich, Poppy Delevingne, Sebastian Roche, T.R. Knight and Seth Gabel.

‘Genius: Picasso’ debuts Tuesday 24 April on Nat Geo.

Georgia Flood (Anzac Girls, Wentworh Prison) has joined the cast of Lifetime series American Princess as the series lead, Amanda.

The scripted show from Jenji Kohan, Jami Denbo and Tara Herrmann centres around a socialite who runs off to join a Renaissance Faire after her wedding goes awry. Lucas Neff (Raising Hope, Fear Inc., Downward Dog), Seana Kofoed (Men in Trees, Flaked), Rory O’Malley (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Hamilton) and Mary Hollis Inboden (The Real O’Neals, Here And Now) round out the series cast.

Produced by A+E Studios in association with Global Road Entertainment, ten one-hour episodes have been greenlit for production this summer in Los Angeles.

Writer and television personality Martha Stewart will join Food Network’s cooking elimination show Chopped for its 38^th series.

Her first episode as a recurring guest judge will air on 5 June, alongside host Ted Allen and series regulars Maneet Chauhan, Scott Conant, Amanda Freitag, Alex Guarnaschelli, Marc Murphy, Marcus Samuelsson, Chris Santos and Geoffrey Zakarian.

Martha Stewart has hosted Martha Stewart Living and The Martha Stewart Show, written 90 books and appeared in films and TV shows including Pixels, Men in Black II and The Simpsons.

Food Network and HGTV programming EVP Courtney White said: “As a lifestyle expert and bestselling author with millions of devoted followers and fans, Martha Stewart’s name is synonymous with perfection.

“Having Martha’s expertise within the newest season of Chopped further reinforces why the series has long been one of the toughest culinary competitions on television.”

Telemundo has launched a new Sunday primetime franchise titled Series Premium, following the success of its daily Super Series genre that launched three years ago.

Series Premium, which kicked off with the highly anticipated Luis Miguel, La Serie, will feature Spanish-language content and what it promises to be high-end productions in a shorter weekly format of 10 to 15 episodes, featuring well-known stars and contemporary storytelling based on “bold bigger-than-life” characters.

The move is part of the network’s plan to evolve its content to meet the dynamic media consumption habits of Latinos in the US across all its platforms.

Leveraging the successful track record of Telemundo Global Studios in producing high-quality long format scripted programming, and working together with prestigious production partners, Telemundo’s Series Premium production pipeline includes the thriller El Recluso, bio-series Nicky Jam: El Ganador, crime series Falco, and El Secreto de Selena, among others.

“We are proud to continue redefining Hispanic media with yet another innovative franchise that fulfils the content needs of Latinos today,” said Luis Silberwasser, President of Telemundo Networks. “We recognise the viewing habits of the Hispanic audience are constantly evolving and are excited to offer a new genre of programming with incredible stories, world class production values, and A-list talent that will become appointment viewing on Sunday primetime.”